As a born and raised Seventh-day Adventist, I questioned many things and became frustrated when I had questions and they would say to me "just trust in what the pastor teaches because he went to Theology school and knows best". Well, this wasn't enough for me! As a young 8 year old I knew that God was in my life because I felt him taking care of me. The things that I knew were the basics for salvation, but I never knew the true meaning of change and what I needed to give up so that I could walk in Christ's foot-steps. I had parents that were going through a divorce and as an 8 yr old you feel that you are the reason why they split up. So my mother gradually began to fade away from church and I had family that would take me to church and I became more devoted as I grew up. That is why I feel that the Lord never left my side. I felt happy and at peace even though my life at home was hard and at times frustrating trying to be on good terms with both parents who would fight and argue in front of me. Many nights I would pray that Jesus would hear me and change my life for the better and keep my mind away from the problems at home and make me happier. Well, my mother eventually met my step dad who is still with her till this day. He also was SDA and eventually made my mom come back to church. So when I was 8 my mom gave her life to Jesus as well as me. We both got baptized and continued to go to church. From that moment everything went right, until I became a teenager. I always loved to sing since I was 4 yrs old and I also sang in the church. Many times I would go into singing competitions with my real dad and always winning 1st place. I gradually loved the applause and feeling I felt when I sang on stage. My dad loved having me sing everywhere and always found ways to get me discovered. My father was not into church and didn't agree on me giving up singing for the world and just to sing in the church. He said he could see me becoming a big time artist in the world. Deep down inside Jesus would make me feel like I was wrong but I loved it so much and it was a way to make my dad feel proud of me. Ever since they were divorced I had a hard time being on good terms with both. I felt many times like I was tugged around between my parents on who I had to hate or love. Coming from a Hispanic back ground I always sang in Spanish and new how to speak it , read it and write it as well. I was always thankful that my mother taught me the Spanish language because it has helped me through life many times. When I turned 14 I was so well known in my community that a good friend of mine introduced me to a professional Spanish singing group that was looking into making a new record label and needed artists that could help their label be well known. So I met them and I made a huge impression on them! They were in shock that I looked white and could speak great Spanish and sing it as well. This was the best day of my life..so I thought...but like always Jesus was always making me feel like it was wrong and I didn't listen. My mother was okay with me singing and we began a 5 year contract, touring and made a CD that sold not so much but enough to put my name out there. By this time I was already going to be 17 and I was in school in the U.S. and still attended my regular high school but on weekends or when needed I would go do a concert in another city. I was becoming concerned with the way that I was handling my life as a Christian and felt like it was time to let go of the fame and the cherished dream I had to become a well known singer. This is where Jesus led me out of that life.
I was beginning my Junior year in high school and was looking into a broadcasting communications career for the future since I knew in my mind that I needed to get out of the singing industry, so I had to take a class in another school that was 15 minutes away from mine and my school would take us there to go to that class. At the school I met the love of my life who has now been my husband 8 yrs and the father of my two precious boys. You can say that Jesus knew I would fall in love and leave the singing for him. Sure enough, I became attached to him and didn't want to sing at anymore concerts, fly here and there and see horrible sin like actions that would be around me 24/7...it became so scary to me that I told the record label that I wanted to break my contract and gracefully they accepted. Amen! I knew that Jesus was calling me out of that life because these people could have sued me but Jesus made them blind and they said "that's ok, we understand that you are young and maybe when you become older or finish high school you can come back and do this again" so I said thank you and walked away. My husband and I became closer to God and he eventually was interested in my religion because he couldn't believe the difference that he saw in me and my family as opposed to his Catholic family. He always went with me to church and when we got married he loved being a Christian because now it had more meaning in his life. When we bought our home we moved farther than our old church so we found an English speaking church in our area that he loved because he spoke Spanish but not as well as me. Well, on the day we first went to this church they were making a calling to get up and accept to be changed and baptized and I was so eagerly wanting him to be saved. Sadly, he didn't get up in church, but when we got home he said that in that sermon he felt that he needed to stand up but he had too many things going through his mind about what his parents, family and others would say about his change. This bothered me because he should never care about what people think when it has to do with your salvation. So, in 2010 he accepted Christ and was baptized! This was such a great year for us because we were doing the normal SDA things like being a part of the church groups, me involved with the praise team and him with the media department. We thought we were so happy and became so content with our new church. Then Jesus placed in our lives an old friend of my mom's in our path, which was my pathfinder teacher when I was a young girl. He came to do a Bible study on the SDA pioneers and taught us many things that we had no idea about. This is where we knew that the Lord was calling us out of the church when we realized that the Trinity was false and was accepted by our religion and that when our pioneers first established this church they didn't have this understanding of the Godhead "the Trinity". They believed that God was the Father of his Son Jesus Christ. Just like this message we began to learn more about the writings of Ellen G. White and saw that she never thought this way and all her writings indicated the opposite of what the church follows. So we asked to be withdrawn from the church and till this day they have not accepted our letter or sent me anything on what my status is within the church. After we began to learn more about the true Godhead, Jesus sent us more light about who the Holy Spirit was, then the Feasts and recently the luni-solar calendar. The most important one to us was that we were baptized incorrectly and we re-baptized in the name of Yeshua "Jesus Christ" because this was how the apostles did it and everyone after Yeshua's death. We have been so blessed to be living by what the Bible says and the Spirit of Prophecy. Many things that we have learned have shown us that we are chosen by God and that angels have been near our side to open our minds to all this light that comes from Heaven so that we can understand it.
One thing that made us sad was that when we approached our home church with the luni-solar calendar and proved it with scripture and history they rejected it. They said that it could not be possible for us to be worshiping all this time the wrong Sabbath. So my husband and I felt sad because this means that they were not seeing what we see and the light that Yeshua was sending us. We prayed and it turns out that Yeshua had plans to present this topic through another person to our home church and it was amazing! When we arrived for our normal home church and began to look into the study with the guest speaker I noticed that the same topics, charts, Bible verses and historical evidence was being presented that I had used when I gave the topic to our group. I was so happy when I began to see that our little home church was seeing the evidences and accepting the days that are the same as in the Old and New testament. In the end, all the group said that they felt a deep sorrow for them rejecting me when I told them about this topic and they are now on track to keeping the real Sabbath. I was already keeping the Luni-solar Sabbath for 2 Sabbaths before they accepted it. Amen, that Yeshua made us come together and now we are holding on tight to our new Sabbaths and all the truths that have made our home church what it is today. Many of them have asked what we are doing about my husband's job and I simply said that if Yeshua wanted us to keep his real Sabbath then that means he will provide for us if we can't keep our jobs because of religious reasons. All the glory needs to be for the creator of this whole world and we must have faith that he will provide when times are tough. I see it as a way for us to grow stronger in character and in humility so that when we have to leave the cities we will leave with a Christ like attitude, ready to take on what may come our way knowing that he will be with us. I hope that this testimony will show you all that when you put your faith in Yeshua and never let go of his teachings , including his real Sabbath's, that is when you have to let go of all the worldly pleasures and prepare for the real journey of a true servant of Yeshua! Since we have accepted all these truths, the Bible has been very clear to us as to what will happen when we follow Yeshua and we have seen our family reject us and avoid us, friends keep away from you and think you are crazy. The truth is that if you can't let go of the ties of this world including family or friends then sadly, you are not prepared to follow the path that leads to Yeshua! Pray and ask Yeshua to make your faith stronger and he will not leave your side, trust me! May God continue to Bless us with more light and guidance in these hard times that are coming our way in these last days!
Donald and Cynthia Perez
Cypress, Texas
USA
